I saw the video when the engineer said he didn’t get the economics. I can’t say I have any data but I do understand the business model. Spotify has the largest market share. AAPL wants to take market share by offering something different, that is backward compatible with all of its products, that works with bluetooth or wireless, and that its customers can notice an improvement. Lossless doesn’t work on some bluetooth or wireless connections, spatial audio does. Users don’t get charged for the new format, aapl eats it in the hope of luring customers from competitors. Remember, aapl isn’t just apple music, its an ecosystem and they wanna crossell you phones, headphones, the works.
The musicians and labels get paid evertime you stream a song and if a new format gets more plays its a win.
The engineer gets new business from updating old recordings and recording new music in atmos.
Dolby collects licesning fees to profit from the R&D they did to develop it.
I can’t believe this engineer can’t connect the dots.
See:
As far as the audio engineer community and atmos that ship has sailed, see:
https://aes2.org/events-calendar/2023-aes-international-conference-on-spatial-and-immersive-audio/